In My Darkest Hour
by Ashdawnheartofwinter
Summary: Pearlshipping story: Ash is depressed, believing he lost his friend Dawn to her rival Kenny  loosely based upon the events of DP180  but it's not the case on Dawn's side of the story.  CONTAINS AN OC  Rated somewhere between T & M for violence, and gore.
1. Chapter 1

Pallet Town, a very quaint little village in the western Kanto region, enveloped by mountains, and wide open grass fields,  
where only a handful of small houses sit connected by a system of dirt roads, leading up to the big laboratory in the middle of it all and leading off to places unknown. The residents of this little hamlet are usually in very good spirits, but these days this was not the case.

A boy who appeared to be 15 years of age at least lay on his bed, staring at the blank ceiling of his bedroom, the wooden window blinds were shut so little light came into the room even at the days brightest. The room was a little messy with assorted clothing scattered across the hardwood floor. Everything else seemed in order including a collection of baseball caps each one battered with age and general wear and tear, lined up in a row.

You would have never known this was Ash Ketchum, the young hot shot Pokemon trainer native to this little town. He looked nothing like most people remembered him, his short messy hair had grown long almost past his shoulders, he wore just a black t shirt and some jeans, in his hands was a white beanie hat with the image of a pink colored pokeball on the front of it.

He looked down at it and sighed and lay his head back down. "I can't believe I lost to Kenny... I didn't think he was serious..." He thought, "why I agreed to it I don't know, shes probably forgotten about me anyway. I should have told her before all this happened!" Ash growled under his breath and began to scrawl words onto a piece of paper.

"I cry out your name,  
but can you hear me?"

About a year or so ago, Kenny challenged Ash to a match to chose who Dawn was to travel with after the league, Kenny won and Ash reluctantly kept his promise and let her go. He spiraled into a deep depression and called off his plans to conquer Isshu and hadn't travelled since. When he first came home he helped his mom and Miney around the house when needed and ran errands with her but as the months pasted he began to Isolate himself more and more.

Nowdays he rarely spoke to anyone, not even to his mother, or Professor Oak, or Brock or even himself. He rarely left his room or the house for that matter, only to feed himself he left his room, as he had a small bathroom and shower located in his bedroom. He stayed in his room, by himself not even with his best friend Pikachu whom he bonded with for many years. The once optimistic, aspiring Pokemon trainer, ready for anything, and anything, anywhere was now a misanthropic shadow of his former self.

He looked over his shoulder and saw an acoustic guitar laying against his dresser and picked it up. Upon returning from Sinnoh he felt he had nothing left to do, so one day he brought home the guitar which he had bought new at a store just outside town and began to teach himself how to play. His mom said he would sit for hours on end in his room strumming away on the instrument reading lessons online for assistance. They seemed to help as he progressed quickly with the instrument and had begun to write a few songs.

Then another day he brought home another guitar, an electric guitar this time long with an assortment of cables and wires and began to fool around with that as well spending hours playing like before. Again he began to write a few songs with that and even began to record his songs, as Delia Ketchum found in a search of his room when Ash actually walked outside in a while,  
the songs were very cold, angry, and nihilistic, played along with synthesized machine gun like blast beat drumming which sounded remarkably realistic. Any trace of singing in any of the songs were more like shrieks from a person dying a slow,  
horrible death. This provoked worry in the mind of Ash's mother wondering what Ash might do with himself.

After only playing a few notes on the guitar he put it down and slumped down off his bed and turned on the television, on the screen was a live broadcast of a Pokemon contest from a far off land, and Kenny had just started his appeal.

Ash watched on in total disgust as he graced the arena during the appeal. He couldn't stand to look at him, his face all smug and full of confidence as he put on a pretty little show for the people around him, feeling his stomach turn as the crowd roared with approval. He reached for the remote to turn it off but had misplaced it and by the time he had found it Kenny had finished his appeal. Ash was glad he didn't have to look at Kenny anymore and left it on for a minute but grew bored and grabbed the remote to turn it off when the contest announcer spoke over the PA system.

"Coming up next is fellow Sinnoh native Ms. Dawn Berlitz!"

Ash dropped the remote and sat back down unenthusiastically, even simply hearing her name got him down.

Dawn appeared as a speck on the right side of the screen, dressed the way Ash remembered her usually dressed in, a pink and black miniskirt, pink go-go boots and scarf, and the white beanie hat, jogging onto the stage and releasing her Piplup from it's Pokeball and began her routine.

Ash could see a slight blandness in her appeal and an evident lack of enthusiasm shown by Dawn. Looking at her face she was not smiling brightly. She didn't look all happy, her face was very solemn, watching intently Piplup's every move.

"She's not gonna make it with that attitude." Ash thought, now very worried about Dawn's well being.

When her appeal was over, she didn't wave to anyone, she didn't congratulate Piplup, she just walked off stage without a word.

Ash nodded in grave disbelief "She's lost it." He whispered, turning the television off.

Ash then opened up the window blinds and looked out towards the horizon, wondering about Dawn. "I wish I could have told her,  
then she might not have gone with Kenny." He turned away from the light and closed the blinds once more and slumped back down onto his bed. "Dawn, I know you can't hear me but I love you I always have. I wish I told you before but I was too clueless to think of that back then. I hope you felt the same way..." Ash rolled over onto his side and went to sleep.

* * *

At the contest arena, it is revealed that Ash's prediction was correct, Dawn had not made it to the 2nd round but Kenny had.  
She was devastated and sat in the dressing room weeping. This was part of a trend that was going on in her contest career since she started traveling with Kenny she had never won a contest, no matter how hard she tried she never made it past the 1st round, she couldn't understand why.

"Why do I even try anymore!" She sniffled, wiping her eyes.

Her Piplup quietly watched on from the other side of the room, feeling his master's sorrows.

Dawn stared at her reflection in the mirror in front of her buried her face in her hands trying to hold back more tears, thinking of her journeys and triumphs she had with her old friends. "If only Ash was here, he helped me out so much..."

Over the PA came the announcement that Kenny had won the ribbon for the contest the 4th one he won in a row. Dawn slammed her forehead on the station she sat at, trying harder then before to keep from bawling her eyes out.  
"I need you right now Ash Ketchum!"

She sat there sulking until she heard a door behind her open, she didn't move or turn around as if she heard nothing.

Kenny walked in to get ready to change into his traveling clothing and saw Dawn slouched over in front of the mirror.  
He decided to take the opportunity to mock Dawn for losing again. "Lost again?" He started, "awww that's too bad."

"Don't rub it in!" Dawn tried to shout but came out as a whisper.

"Oh there's no need to rub it in, because you can't make it on your own."

Dawn sat completely silent, her sadness slowly being replaced by anger.

"You always had that Ash help you through a contest." Kenny continued on.

"N-no! I never had to rely on him to for my appeals!"

"Oh thats bullshit," Kenny retorted, "every contest you've been in you've always had a little battle with him first."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You've always had him walk you through them like a little baby, he's only saying you're great cause he feels sorry for you.  
I bet your mom feels the same way about you, she pretends to support you but really is ashamed of you."

Dawn's eyebrows twitched as he pelted her with insults.

"Your appeals have always been mediocre at best, I bet you blew the judges so you'd get make the next rounds like the slut you are!"

Dawn stood up and slammed her hands down on the station staring blankly at her reflection in the mirror.

"Oh what are you gonna do bitch?" Kenny taunted, walking over and slapping Dawn on the back of the head.

That did it, Dawn swung around and slugged Kenny right in the face.

Kenny doubled over and quickly recovered. "Oh you asked for it!" He growled and tried to throw a punch back but Dawn blocked him and wrapped her arm around his and forced it upwards, dislocating his shoulder and then forced Kenny into the wall leaving a large dent in the drywall and knocking Kenny out cold.

"Come on Piplup!" She called the blue penguin like Pokemon, which was now in a state of shock, back into it's Pokeball then quickly gathered her things and took off out of the locker room, out of the arena, and out into the forest trail where she stopped to catch her breath after running what felt like a mile.

"I couldn't deal with him anymore," she said, "I don't care if I get banned for life he's a dick!" Dawn let Piplup back out of it's Pokeball, he was not as shocked now but very confused and tried to ask what was going on.

"We're going to find Ash," She said, assuming that's what Piplup was asking which was exactly right on the mark, "wherever he is." Dawn got up and removed the hairclips from her hair so it fell down naturally and then took off her beanie.

"Since Kenny's gonna go berserk when he wakes up I might wanna make a change in wardrobe." She thought, and wandered off in the bushes and changed to another dress, one with a different color palette, it as white with a blue trim and had a longer skirt,  
and she traded the go-go boots for a pair of white slip on shoes.

"Well that's as much a disguise I can put on right now." Dawn sighed and started walking along the trail with Piplup.

* * *

Back in the locker room Kenny comes back to consciousness and looks around wondering where he is, then remembers.

"That bitch is dead when I find her!" He proclaimed, and tried to stand up but yelps in pain due to his dislocated shoulder.  
"As soon as I get out of the Hospital..."


	2. Chapter 2

Dawn disembarked the ferry after docking she wandered over to nearby Sandgem town to to gather some supplies for her trip, she figured she shouldn't stay long as Kenny might probably look on home soil first if he were perusing her right now. So she wandered around the town looking for the convenience store. She found it only a few minutes later and she walked inside.  
The store was not very big but carried a wide variety of snack foods, bottled drinks, and other things.

After picking out things that she needed, she walked over to the counter to pay.  
She walked out of the store with her back pack filled and she wanted to go back to the ferry dock but her mind began to drift off elsewhere. Thinking of Ash, how he was feeling, and what he would do or say when he saw her face once again. But these happy thoughts turned sour fairly quick.

"What if I find him and he's mad at me?" She worried, "Or what if he found another girl?"

she then entered a daydream spawned by the thoughts on her mind.

"I'm sorry Dawn but I decided to move on," Ash said motioning towards a girl who looked strikingly similar to Misty but had longer purplish colored hair and skinny jeans.

"You ready Ashy?" The girl asked.

"Ready as always!" Ash beamed and they walked along the trail, leaving Dawn standing on the side of the road, at a loss of words, tears spilling from her eyes. She took off down the other direction, she didn't care about anything anymore, all that she cared about was nothing now, a heart shattered beyond repair she ran until she came upon a dead maple tree. She climbed up the tree and began to remove her scarf. She began to fashion a noose out of the tree. "If Ash can't have me, no one will!"  
She cried as she tied the scarf to the tree and placing it around her neck.

Dawn's attention was brought back to the real world when she crashed into something. "Ow..." She said, rubbing her forehead.  
Thinking she had run into a telephone pole or some sort of inanimate object she shook her head and looked up and saw that she had actually run into a man who was also laying on the ground, surrounded by an assortment of cardboard boxes. The man had long brown hair, and was wearing a black shirt with "DIO" printed on it in red underneath a worn out denim jacket with the sleeves removed and covered with patches bearing the names of various heavy metal bands.. "Ugh, watch it will ya?" The man grunted.

"I-I'm so sorry Mister." Dawn stammered, offering to help the man up then she looked closely at the man, she recognized him.

Just before she and Ash parted ways a long haired man joined the two back to Twinleaf town so he could sell some heavy equipment and he followed Ash back to Kanto for whatever reason. "Is that you Jeremy?" Dawn asked.

"What? How do you know my..." Jeremy looked up and saw a familiar pair of blue eyes, looking at him. "Dawn?"

"It is you!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Yeah it's me," Jeremy said, "what's up with you? You look stressed out."

Dawn's head bowed down. "I am," she sighed, "I couldn't take Kenny anymore so I attacked him and ran off."

Jeremy nodded in understanding, despite only having seen Kenny very briefly during his very short tenure in Ash's entourage.  
Then began to pick up the boxes he dropped when Dawn ran into him. "Well I wish you good luck in finding him." He said and began to walk off.

"Wait!" Dawn said, tugging at his pant leg. "I'm kinda on the lam right now, Kenny could be after me right now or organized some sort of (wo)manhunt to track me down. My mom has probably heard all about it now and she probably won't let me in the house so I don't know where else to go."

Jeremy frowned a little bit and then offered to help her up. "Follow me." he said.

Dawn took his hand and stood up and did as told. "Thank you Jer," She smiled, "where are we going?"

"To my place," Jeremy answered, "where else?"

"Um.. okay then," Dawn said uneasily, "how far away is that?"

"Not too far," Jeremy responded, "I live just outside of town. I chose to so I can blast the Marshalls, without noise complaints or constantly worrying that someone's gonna steal my stuff."

* * *

Just about a mile out of town, a moderately large cottage appeared over the hills, it was nothing very special, just a two story home covered in natural wood paneling and a stone base, almost sort of a log cabin kind of vibe to it.

Jeremy unlocked the front door and let Dawn in first and followed close behind. The house was very tidy, no thing was laying on the floor or where it should not be. The walls were lined with heavy metal memorabilia, drumsticks, guitar picks, band shirts, pictures, painted cloth banners, and even what appeared to be the splintered remains of a guitar.

Dawn looked at collage of objects the filled the walls of the room with wonder, it made her feel a little nervous. "Uhh...  
this is quite a collection of stuff you've got here Jer." Dawn remarked running a finger along an old Iron Maiden shirt.

Jeremy gently pulled her hand away. "Please don't touch, thank you."  
Dawn put her hand down and put it behind her back. "Sorry..."

"It's alright," Jeremy smiled, "follow me upstairs and we can discuss Ash." Dawn followed him upstairs and into his 'workspace'  
From the door the focal point of the room was the large window that looked out over the hills and valleys. In the room were two black sofas with a black walnut coffee table in between. Other then a computer desk there was nothing really in the room, completely over looking the one key feature. The walls was all a big bookshelf but not one of books but of guitars and other stringed instruments (mostly guitars), just about any shaped or colored guitar you could think of it was probably up there. Amp heads atop various 4x12 speaker cabinets also lined the back wall.

Dawn was amazed at the sight of so many instruments on the walls, this also made her kind of nervous fearing she might break something she immediately sat down on one of the couches.

"This is what happens when you have a well paying job and no wife." Jeremy chuckled, sitting on the couch adjacent to Dawn.

"Wow there are so many... do you play all of them?" She asked.

"Of course," Jeremy responded, strumming one of the guitars with his index finger, "I wouldn't have them if I never used them.  
Are you thirsty by the way? Cause I could get you a drink if you want."

"Just some water," Dawn said, "can we get down to business?"

"Okay then," Jeremy dug into a mini fridge by the computer desk and handed Dawn a bottled water and sat back down.

Dawn opened the cold bottle and took a sip. "You went with him back to his home in Kanto, why?" She asked.

"I figured since he was pretty upset that you two were leaving, I thought I would tag along and give him someone to talk to and give him some support."

"I see," Dawn sighed, taking another sip of her water, "how long did you stay with him in Kanto?"

"Well only about half a day actually in Kanto I felt that nothing else really needed to be done so I came back home.  
He was pretty bitter when he got on that ferry he barely spoke at all, just stood on deck looking at the ocean."

Dawn continued to listen intently.

"I did talk to his mother the other day to check on him," Jeremy continued, "she said that he's been sitting in his room for the past 5 months, barely making a sound. She also told me he had taught himself how to play guitar and wrote some pretty grim sounding songs when she looked in his room when he was in the shower. She sent me a couple of them and they're actually pretty good to be honest but I digress."

"Hold on," Dawn cut in, "he's at home? I thought he would have moved on to Isshu by now."

"Nah he quit," Jeremy Answered, "he was so down about the whole thing that when on the way back he said 'Fuck it I don't wanna do this anymore!' that's right from his very mouth."

"Oh," Dawn said, staring out the window, "that's not like the Ash I remember, he really must be down."

"No doubt about that. Also I hope you don't mind, but what happened with you and Kenny?"

Dawn groaned, she didn't want to think about it right now.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Jeremy added.

"No it's fine," Dawn reassured, "don't worry too much. But the thing is, me and Kenny never got along very well at all. He's the reason some people call me 'Dee Dee' these days. And when we started traveling together things were no different. We always argued with each other, I always kept my distance from him when camping out or traveling. I thought it would blow over eventually but I was wrong. When I first began to lose contests he began to mock me, call me names and just outright abused me. And all that pent up anger just got up to the point where I snapped and attacked him."

"Sounds like a real asshole." Jeremy remarked.

"He is, he is." Dawn replied, "and now I fear for my life wondering what he'll do if he finds me."

"No need to worry Dawn," Jeremy perked up, attempting to use her catchphrase to bring her confidence, "I'm sure he'll never find you."

Dawn's confidence rose very little but she stood up. "Alright, no more beating around the bush, I'm going to Pallet town!"

Jeremy smiled watching Dawn march out the door to catch the nearest ferry to the Kanto region.

* * *

Ash sat down in a bean bag chair playing around on his old Nintendo Entertainment System to keep him entertained as he had done just about everything else he could do for the past few months. Eventually Ash grew bored and stood up.

"You know what," he announced, "I'm not gonna sit here and sulk all year." Ash turned of his system and walked out of his room and sat down at the table dinner table.

Delia Ketchum, smiled brightly when she saw Ash leave his room. "Maybe he's finally cheering up." She thought.

Ash put on his shoes and walked outside to get some fresh air and to stretch his legs as he hadn't had a good long walk in ages since he stopped traveling. "Man does it feel good to have a good walk." He said to himself, "nothing like a good stretch to calm you down." Ash's smile diminished and he looked down at his feet. "I still wish Dawn was here to enjoy it with me." He mumbled as he walked up to Oak's laboratory and made his way back.


	3. Chapter 3

Dawn walked her way to the docks, it was the evening now and she was exhausted. She had been walking nonstop for hours and she was just barely standing. There were no ships in the harbor surprisingly, all was quiet but the sounds of the waves and the Windgull and Pelipper. She frowned seeing nothing around her, she stumbled over to one of the nearby ticket booths where one lady stood behind the counter. "Can I help you?"

"When's the next ship to Kanto?" Dawn asked.

"Tomorrow at 2:30 PM" The lady answered.

"Tomorrow?" Dawn groaned unhappily, "awww man! Well can I buy a ticket for the trip then?"

"You certainly can." The lady said.

"Cool, I'll take one please."

Dawn gave the lady the money and took the ticket then wandered over to the Pokemon center.

Once inside Dawn walked over to the desk. "I'm gonna need to stay here for the night."

* * *

"Alright then," Nurse Joy said, handing Dawn a key. "always room here at the Pokemon center, your room is number 6."

"Thanks." Dawn yawned, walking away from the counter.

Being it was a low number and the fact that there weren't very many rooms to begin with it didn't take long to find her room.  
Once inside, her weary legs gave out and she collapsed onto the floor. Dawn literally crawled onto the bed and lay there,  
not even taking off her shoes, her backpack or anything, she was too tired to think about that at the moment.

"Man what a relief!" She sighed, resting her head on her arm, glancing at the clock on the nightstand which read 9:18.

The sun had gone down and the moon began to rise into the sky, as it was the early to mid fall months and the trees were beginning to brown and drop off their leaves as the temperatures got colder.

She stared at the clock until a minute had passed, when she sat up and slipped off her shoes and set her bag aside, then figured she should change while she was up. So she dismissed of her clothes and quickly put on her pink pyjamas and layed back down.

"Ahhh... much better."

Dawn turned off the lamp on the nightstand and slipped under the covers to go to sleep as there was not much else to do at the hour, she turned on her side, as she did a couple of vertebrae in her back popped in back in place. "Ooh!" She exclaimed,  
feeling and hearing them shift. She lay still for a minute before drifting off to sleep.

At around 4:00 she woke up for whatever reason, she shut her eyes trying to go back to sleep but she couldn't. "Just one of those nights I guess." She murmured. As she lay she began to think of Ash. "I really hope he's not as down as Jer says he is.  
I can't imagine someone as daring as him would be so out of it."

"It was too early for me to fall asleep," She thought, "but there wasn't anything for me to do..."

Dawn sat up and looked out the window, out at the pitch black sky only broken by the stars and the moonlight reflecting off the ocean. In the distance she could very faintly hear a ships horn break the silence and caught sight of the ship as a speck on the night horizon.

Dawn sighed longingly, she dug into her yellow backpack and pulled out a little green photobook she opened it and looked inside.  
Each page contained 2 photographs, the first two pages were just silly pictures she had taken sometime before her journey began,  
followed by some bad Pokemon photography. The rest was a collection of pictures of her, Ash and Brock and the many events that occurred during their time together. One photo caught her eye, a picture of her and Ash with his arm draped over Dawn's shoulders.  
She took the photo out of it's sleeve and stared at it.

"He was always so nice to me," She sniffled, "without him I don't think I'd have earned any of the ribbons I did back then."  
A tear rolled down her cheek and landed on the photograph, she brushed it off then held the picture against her chest.  
"I can't wait to see him again." She thought, putting the photo back into the book, wiping her eyes and slipping back under the blanket. She layed down for a few more minutes before eventually drifting off to sleep.

* * *

The morning came it was 9:58 to be exact, and the streets below were bustling with activity. Dawn awoke, she rubbed her eyes then turned to look out the window. It was a beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky, but being close to the sea and it being in the autumn months it was a little chilly. Dawn didn't want to get out of bed because she was so comfortable.

"Uurgh... just a little bit longer?" She whispered to herself, rolling onto her side but then looked at the clock and knew it was time to get up. She stood up and opened up the window. The harbor too was full of life, there were ships sailing to and fro across the endless body of water. Dawn took a deep breath and sighed before shutting the windows.

"Such a beautiful day," She remarked, "can't wait till I can board the ship!"

She picked up her bag and pulled out a bottle of shampoo, a toothbrush and some toothpaste and headed to the bathroom to get ready. After setting down her things and taking care of some business,  
Dawn turned on the shower and got undressed.

"Now to figure out how I'm gonna pass the time till the ship departs." She said to herself throwing her clothes into a pile in a corner. Dawn shivered when a cold draft of air came from a crack under the door. She giggled softly and picked up her head and looked in the mirror and she saw Kenny right behind her. Dawn tried to scream but Kenny put his hand over her mouth before she could make a sound.

* * *

Dawn awoke in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. Franticly she glanced around the room to see if she was alone, she was. Dawn took a sigh of relief.

"It was just a dream..." She panted, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. She looked over at the clock, it was 12:45 PM, Dawn knew it was time to get up now. she stood up and gave a quick slap to her face to make sure she had really woken up, nothing happened so she once again gathered her things and went to get a shower. Before getting in the shower she checked around her room once again to confirm that she was truly alone, shutting the window blinds first because she didn't want anyone seeing her naked, then returning to the bathroom.

"Oh man that dream got me all paranoid." Dawn sighed, hopping in the shower.

Dawn stood under the shower head damping down her hair reaching for the shampoo bottle and squirting some onto her scalp then working it into a lather, rinsing it out, then repeating the process. She then reached for a bottle of body wash that the center provided and lathered some of it over her upper body starting with the chest working down to her stomach, then finishing up with the arms and back. She stepped out of the shower and quickly dried herself off and wrapping the towel around her body then began to dry her hair. About a half hour later Dawn had finished brushing her hair to perfection. She took a moment to admire her work and got dressed, she dressed in the same pink and black skirt, pink boots, black socks, pink scarf, and beanie hat that she had been wearing since she started.

"Ahhh... much better!" She said, gathering her things and leaving the room to check out.

It was now time to board the ferry to Kanto so as soon as Dawn had checked out, she raced over to the boat and got on as soon as she could. She was one of the second last person to get on the boat as she was closely followed on by a man wearing a plain black hoodie. The ferry departed only 2 minutes later and Dawn sat on the bow of the ship looking onward.

"Here I come Ash Ketchum." She whispered to herself, watching the bow of the ship cut through the waves like butter, "Dawn Berlitz is coming for you."

She stayed out on the bow until land was no longer in sight, then she went below deck to find her room. Her room was more of a closet by her standards, only a small two bunk bed, adjacent to an ancient television set. A small coat closet and restroom were right next to the front door. Dawn turned on the lights, the only light was a single incandescent light bulb and a tiny porthole window. Dawn put her little bag on the bed and she sat down.

"Well at least it's clean in here." She thought, turning on the TV to keep her occupied.

The television was set on the news channel that was just explaining information on a missing person search.

"And we're putting in a small update concerning the search for Sinnoh native Dawn Berlitz who disappeared after a Pokemon contest yesterday. We've received countless phone calls from people who claimed to have seen her around her native Twinleaf town and Sandgem Town but none have been confirmed so far."

Dawn turned off the TV and lay down on her bunk and decided to take a little nap even though it had only been a few hours since she woke up.

She awoke 3 hours later face down on the pillow, she lifted up her head and stretched a little bit.

"I'd say that was a good nap." She yawned. Just after she said that the room went pitch black and Dawn sat up suddenly causing her to bang her head on the top bunk. She sat and rubbed her head for a second and looked around.

"What now?" She thought, "Did the ship lose power?"  
Looking again she saw the light underneath the door making her realize that the ship hadn't lost power but merely the lightbulb that lit up her room had just gone out. Dawn moved the blinds away from the porthole to provide any kind of light.  
It was a very dim light but at least she could see somewhat. Then she dug into her bag and pulled out a little LED flashlight.

"Gotta have one of these on hand." She checked in the coat closet in search of a replacement bulb.

Not finding anything in there,  
she looked in the bathroom but didn't find anything. Dawn growled and grabbed her bag and left the room. Dawn only walk a few paces before meeting up with someone who worked on the boat.

"Excuse me," Dawn asked the man, "do you know where I can find a light bulb?"

The man replied bluntly, "Yeah in that little machine right there." The man pointed to a sort of vending machine for light bulbs and walked off.

"Thanks?" Dawn muttered and got a bulb from the machine and returned to her room. Promptly she installed the bulb and sat back down. A crackle came over the loudspeaker.

_"Attention passengers we'll be docking in Vermilion City in roughly 10 minutes, thank you."_

Dawn sat back up and got her things and walked back on deck. The lights from land were visible already and she stood at the railing watching the lights get closer and closer until they were at anchor.

* * *

Dawn disembarked the boat and immediately began looking for a map of the region, when she found one, she found that Pallet Town was a few miles west of her.

"Oh man," She sighed, sinking down to the ground, "I don't wanna walk another 10 miles."

Suddenly she had an idea, she stood back up and let out her Togekiss.

"Okay Togekiss," Dawn started, "I need your help."

Togekiss nodded, waiting patiently for orders. Dawn showed Togekiss the map, pointing at Pallet Town.

"Do you think you could fly me over here?" She asked.

Togekiss was unsure at first, she had never carried a human on her back, a couple of Pokemon a few times but never a human.

"Come on Togekiss, surely you can take my weight."

Togekiss agreed and let Dawn on her back and took off with little effort.

"See?" Dawn said, "I knew you could do it."

Togekiss chimed happily and kept flying, she had a rough idea of where her master wanted to go so she continued to fly west across the water and they got there about an hour later. Dawn got off Togekiss and returned her to the pokeball. It was about 7:00 and now that she was there she just had to find which house was the Ash's.  
The small amount of houses in the town made it easy and she found the Ketchums household in a matter of minutes.

She knocked on the door, and Delia answered the door and smiled.

"You must be the Ash's friend Dawn," She said, "I was expecting you."

Dawn was very surprised by this. She was expected to be here? Never the less she answered. "Yes that's me, is Ash here by the way?"

"No, he's out running errands with Miney for me." Delia replied.

Dawn frowned, she had to wait even longer to see him. "Can I come in?" She asked.

"Of course!" Delia laughed, "any of Ash's friends is welcome to my home."

Dawn walked inside and sat on the couch. Delia followed and sat adjacent to her. "How did you know I was coming here?" Dawn asked again.

"Ash's friend Jeremy called me and said that you were coming this way the other night. I didn't tell Ash though, though he spends his time outside now."

"Hmmm... Jer told me that he was sulking in his room." Dawn said.

"He was until just recently." Delia responded.

"Oh" Dawn looked out at the stars in the sky.

A whistling came from the Kitchen. "Oh the teapot," Delia explained, standing up, "I was going to make some tea, would you like some?"

"Sure."

Delia walked off into the kitchen and took the kettle off the stove. Dawn watched her in boredom and sighed.

The front door clicked and low and behold Ash walks in with Miney carrying a couple of plastic bags.

"Hey mom they didn't have any-" Ash froze when he looked to his right and saw Dawn sitting on the couch.

Dawn didn't recognise him at first due to this hair being longer than she remembered but looking at his face for as long as they did she knew it was him.

"**ASH!"** Dawn squealed and embraced him in a big bear hug knocking him down.  
Ash was taken by surprise one second he was staring down the girl of his dreams from across the room and in the blink of an eye he was on the floor and was over come with joy at seeing Dawn in person again and returned the hug.


	4. Chapter 4

They lay there for about a minute before they stood up, still staring into each others eyes.

"Dawn I can't believe it," Ash smiled, "I never thought I'd get to see you in person again."

Dawn mirrored his smile as she wrapped her arms around Ash once more. Delia returned from the kitchen with the tea kettle, she had heard the commotion from the kitchen and even though she knew what had happened, she couldn't help but smile too.

"Tea's ready Dawn." She butted in.

"You know what," Dawn said turning away from Ash for a second, "I'll skip the tea I'm gonna spend my time with Ash." Delia understood and sat down at the coffee table.

"Alright then."

Dawn followed Ash to his room which to her surprise was not very cluttered and messy as she assumed. "Wow this is your room?"

Ash grinned and sat down on his bed. "It sure is, my mom always kept it nice and clean when I'm away."

Dawn walked over to Ash's modest collection of mostly baseball caps. "You sure love your hats don't you Ash?"

"Yeah when it comes to clothing, the hat's my pride and joy," Ash said, then picking up the first one in the group, "this one especially, my Pokemon League Expo hat. I've had this long before my journey even started, I don't even know if it still fits me."

Dawn quickly grew bored of Ash talking about his hats, she wanted to talk about more serious things.

"Our good friend Jer tells me you were pretty down before I came along here." Dawn said, changing the subject.

Ash's smile diminished into a small frown and he sat down on the bed. "Yeah I was really mad at myself when I came home,"  
Ash replied, "about losing to Kenny and you going with him."

Dawn nodded, sitting down next to him. "Keep going, I got all night."

"I was trying to cheer up when I got home by helping out my mom and stuff but the more I thought about you, the harder it got to keep my head high, and I started isolating myself in my room. I stopped talking to people cause I was so mad I hated everyone and everything about them. I wouldn't even let Pikachu in my room."

"I think you were overreacting a little bit." Dawn remarked, thinking of Ash's timonian lifestyle.

"You're right Dawn," Ash sighed, looking out the window, "I've dealt with this kind of thing before but this hit me pretty hard and couldn't bounce back."

"Hmmm..."

"When I heard that you had disappeared after that one contest I became more worried about you then angry at anything." Ash went on.

Dawn began to listen with more understanding rather then pity when she heard he was worried about her. "Worried about me?"

"Yes."

"Why on this earth would you be worried about me?"

"Because I love you!" Ash blurted out.

Dawn gasped at what he had just said. "R-r-really?"

"Absolutely," Ash confirmed, "it's true, I've always liked you from the day I met you. But it was really only when we parted was when I realized I truly loved you."

"Oh Ash!" Dawn cried happily, "I love you too!" Having said that she promptly jumped into his arms locking lips with her long haired lover.

Ash was stunned for a moment as he felt a hydrogen bomb of happiness explode within his heart and returned the kiss. They sat there for a full 2 minutes with their lips together before they broke to catch their breath. Ash's eyes studied Dawn over, she looked exactly the same as he remembered except a little more 'developed'.

"What are you staring at?" Dawn quizzed innocently.

Ash shook his head and tried to remain calm. "U-uh nothing..." Ash sputtered, clearly not doing a very good job at hiding the fact that he was looking at her chest.

Dawn rolled her eyes and smiled again. "Oh boys..." She giggled.

"I'm sorry..." Ash said, sheepishly.

Dawn continued smiling and wrapped her arms around Ash once more. "It's fine, really," She assured, "you're just curious and you haven't seen me in a while."

Ash shrugged and reached to grab Dawn at her waist but his fingers brushed up against her stomach, a part of her body which was very ticklish causing her to squeak and jump.

Ash pulled his hands back in confusion then grinned evilly.

"Uh oh..." Dawn thought before being relentlessly tickled by Ash.

He was soft at first, soaking in Dawn's coos and giggles before kicking up the intensity.

"AHASH! PHAHA-LEAHSE STOP!" She shouted in between breaths.

"Never!" Ash laughed.

"NHOOOOO SHEERIOUSLY AHSH!" she panted, "I GHAHTTA PEHEE!"

Ash blew this off as an excuse to make him stop and kept tickling.  
Dawn was not lying however, she hadn't used a restroom since she left Twinleaf town so she need to go. Dawn was trying to keep cool but Ash's relentless tickling was too much. Just before she thought she'd lose it she pushed out of Ash's grip and hopped off to the restroom.

A moment later Dawn emerged from the restroom.

"Ahh..." she sighed contently, "that almost ended in tragedy."

She sat back down on Ash's bed, Ash looked down shamefully.

"Sorry about that." He whispered.

"Don't worry your pretty little head Ash." Dawn said, "You're lucky I got out of your grip before anything bad happened. You really gotta learn to stop when I say 'stop' okay?"

Ash nodded in agreement.

"Now," Dawn said taking off her hat and taking the hairclips out of her hair, "it's getting kinda late, I'm going to change into my PJs so could you maybe give me some privacy please?"

Ash got up and out so Dawn could change, and figured that he might as well do the same and quickly changed leaving only his white t-shirt and boxer shorts.

"Okay Ash you can come back in now." Dawn called from inside Ash's room.

Ash walked inside and lay back on his bed. Dawn dressed in her pink Pyjamas stood at the edge of the bed.

"You're gonna stay with me in my bed?" Ash asked.

"Well where else can I sleep?" Dawn answered trying to reason with him, "I'm not sleeping on a couch, and I'm definitely not sleeping in your mom's bed."

Ash scratched his chin. "Good point. It's okay you can stay with me." Dawn smiled brightly and jumped on the bed and cuddled up next to Ash.

Ash smiled and ran his fingers through Dawn's silky blue hair.

"You like?" She giggled.

"Yeah, it's beautiful," Ash responded, "you look much better without the hairclips in there"

"Oh stop," Dawn sighed, a small blush appearing on her cheeks, "if you let me I'll make your hair as silky as mine."

"No thanks." Ash said, and pulled Dawn a little closer. Dawn's cheeks turned redder, wrapping her free arm around Ash.

"Good night Beautiful." Ash smiled.

Dawn giggled and said "Good night" too. They started moving in to give each other a good night kiss when a commotion was heard outside the door. They sat up looking in the direction of the door. A voice belonging to a young man was heard yelling at Ash's mom amongst the sound of things being thrown around. Dawn recognized the voice and she froze, her skin went pale and the hairs on her arms stood up.

"Oh no..." She shuddered.

"What's the matter Dawn?" Ash asked.

Dawn turned to look at him, he could clearly see the terror in her eyes. "It's Kenny! He's here!"

Ash jumped out of bed, Dawn clinging to him. The noise outside the door stopped, silent footsteps approached the door, then the door comes flying open and in comes exactly who Dawn feared.

"HEEEERE'S KENNY!" He shouted

Kenny's gaze quickly fixed on Dawn. "So... you thought you could pull a fast one? Run away like the coward you are. Well,  
guess what, you've failed at that just like everything else."

"How did you find me?" Dawn said.

Kenny nodded. "You're so predictable, I knew you would come here because I knew this guy was the only other person who could help you."

"Only other person?" Dawn growled, "Since when did you ever help me with anything? NEVER! If you want me to follow you around like a slave then GO FUCK YOURSELF!"

Kenny laughed sinisterly. "Oh no Dawn, I have no intention of keeping a whore like you along with me." Kenny drew a 9mm handgun out from behind him, "In fact, I have no intention of letting you live either."

Ash impulsively kicked Kenny and grabbed his arm attempting to disarm him, Kenny dropped the gun and engaged in hand to hand combat with Ash. Dawn could only watch as the two fought on as if their lives depended on it. About a minute into the fight Ash threw Kenny to the ground.

"Dawn get out of here!" Ash shouted. Dawn promptly ran towards the door. Kenny looked over his shoulder and saw the handgun, he reached for it and fired two shots through Ash's abdomen, one of the bullets piercing through Ash and striking Dawn in the leg.

Dawn fell against the wall when the bullet struck her and slid down to the floor. Kenny stood up dropping Ash to the floor and walking over to Dawn.

"Awww... did little Dee dee fall down?" He mocked.

Dawn looked on helplessly, tears welling up in her eyes. Kenny put the barrel of the gun to her head.

"Here let me help you with that."

Dawn's eyes shut tight waiting for the end when a loud bang rang out followed by a thud. She opened her eyes to find Kenny slumped down on the floor,  
his head blown apart. Dawn shuddered and looked up and saw Jeremy holding a 12 gauge shotgun with Delia standing close behind. Jeremy ejected the spent shell from the chamber and set the weapon down and rushed to the aid of his injured friend.

"You kids alright?" He asked.

Dawn looked down at her leg. "Not really." She replied weakly, "why are you here?"

"I followed you on board the boat over here," Jeremy explained, "I was worried something like this would happen to you two."

"Oh," Dawn whispered, "thank you Jer." She looked around at the blood spattered walls she hated the sight of blood and felt sick to her stomach but was hard to look anywhere without seeing blood. Delia looked into the dark room and saw Ash on the ground and went hysterical and turned her eyes away. Both turned in her direction and saw Ash as well.

"Oh Jesus..." Jeremy breathed, taking the nearest phone and calling for paramedics.

"**ASH!"** Dawn screamed and stood up despite the pain from the bullet wound and limped over to his side. She dared not touch him fearing she'd hurt him more then he already was.

Ash opened his bloodshot eyes weakly, he tried to speak but he was so weak anything he tried to say was almost unintelligible.

"Don't move Ash," Dawn warned, "you're hurt pretty bad."

Ash grimaced and lay his head back down. Despite the infernal pain he managed to say something. "Dawn... I... don't think... I'll... make it."

Chills ran down Dawn's spine as he struggled through his sentence. "Don't talk like that!" She cried, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks, "you'll make it I swear!"

Ash smiled faintly then the pain had become too much and fainted.

Dawn knew that he had only passed out but for some reason this triggered a panic for her. "Stay with me Ash!" She sobbed hysterically, "please wake up! I need to know you're still here damnit!"

* * *

The medics arrived a moment later and rushed both to a hospital, where Ash was put immediately under intensive care. Dawn was the first to get released only after the removal of the bullet, treatment and bandaging of the wound but was advised not to walk for a few hours. Dawn looked herself over and at her bandaged leg.

"How's Ash?" She asked a nearby nurse assuming she knew his condition.

"He's still in critical condition," She answered, "but he's stable now. You should be glad you got him here when you did, if he hadn't gotten here sooner he's likely be dead."

Dawn sighed softly in relief but felt uneasy still, thinking of Ash dying. "Thank god. When will he be released?"

The nurse replied. "Somewhere between a few weeks to about a month. You should be out in a day or two."

Dawn lay her head back on the hospital bed feeling somewhat guilty that she wasn't suffering as much as Ash was. "This only happened because I chose to follow him around and not Ash. I'm so stupid..."

When Dawn could safely walk once again she stuck around the hospital building as long as Ash was there. Often times she'd even sleep in the hospital even though the staff didn't really appreciate this. She stayed for about a month and a half until she was told that he was going to released very soon. She stayed at Ash's house when she heard this, cause she didn't want him to come home and see her all dirty so she sat there waiting for him to come home and when he did she greeted him in the same manner she did when she saw him a month ago.

When they embraced eachother for the first time since his recovery, for both of them it was the best thing they ever experienced together. "Don't ever leave me again Dawn." Ash said.

"No need to worry Ashy," Dawn smiled, "you're all I need."

End


End file.
